The Reception of Doctrine: New Perspectives

Abstract

As Christians we believe that the Word of God has been spoken into human history from the beginning of creation and that, ‘in the fullness of time,’ this Word became flesh as Jesus of Nazareth, the Word incarnate. The sacred scriptures are the Church’s inspired, written testimony to that Word. Roman Catholicism, along with the Orthodox and Anglican communions, also affirms that, as these scriptures are proclaimed, prayed, studied and applied in the life of Christian communities, a living tradition emerges. The apostolic character of this tradition is authenticated and proclaimed doctrinally by the college of bishops – those who succeed to the authority of the college of the apostles. In the Catholic theologies of tradition that developed from the time of the Council of Trent until the 1950s, reflection on the way in which this apostolic faith has been ‘handed on’ focused on the teaching of the bishops. However, in the second half of the twentieth century Catholic theology began to acknowledge that the teaching of doctrine cannot be understood apart from the ecclesial process of receptio – the work of the whole Church in the reception of what has been taught. In this chapter I would like to sketch very briefly the development of receptionas an ecclesiological category in Catholic theology, and then consider the ways in which theological appropriations of modern hermeneutics, literary theory, communications theory and the study of popular religion can further enrich our theology of reception and consequently our understanding of the nature of doctrinal teaching authority in the Church. I will conclude by proposing a heuristic model for understanding the way in which the processes of ecclesial reception relate to the bishops’ unique responsibility for the teaching of doctrine.